Read up on Pelly & Grey negotiating sales of the land. As for forced to stay on the Rez is malarky. They were HBC contractors.
http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/prospect.htm
The federal government was both relentless and imaginative in the means it employed to assimilate the Indian. The very definition of who was "an Indian", and hence, who also was not, was one of the elements put under government control in the first Indian Act. It is noteworthy that the continuation of Indian status was defined on the father's side: aboriginal men who married non-aboriginal women remained Indian, while aboriginal women who married non-aboriginal men lost their Indian status, as did their children. This reflected European patriarchy, and also established lineages which conflicted with the matrilineal descent practised by many First Nations (e.g., see Joseph, 1991; Wilson, 1985).
The history of Indian administration in Canada from that point onward, is one of increasing control by government authorities over natives. A partial list includes: (a) attempts to suppress "pagan rituals" and promote Christian religions by banning important cultural festivals such as the Potlatch, Thirst Dance, and Sun Dance; (b) efforts to suppress traditional native structures of self-government, and to teach the elements of English-style "good government", through imposition of elected "band councils"; (c) diminishing the influence of natural parents and heightening the in loco parentis role of the Christian churches by requiring children to leave their parents and attend government-sponsored residential schools where use of Indian languages and other aspects of "Indian-ness" were punished;
(d) controlling aboriginals' efforts to organize and pursue aboriginal rights by initiating a "pass" system where Indians could not leave their reserve without permission of the Indian Agent, and making it illegal to hire a lawyer to pursue any form of aboriginal rights or land claim; and (e) undermining aboriginal justice structures by giving paramountcy to the Indian Act and other federal and provincial law (e.g., see Cole & Chaikin, 1990; Dyck, 1991; Francis, 1992; Mathias & Yabsley, 1991; Tennant, 1985; Wilson, 1985).
So they have all the rights but none of the responsibility?
What do you mean by responsiblity? Responsiblity for ensuring the resources are used appropriately? Or are you wanting them to pay?
